Singer Sinead O’Connor Says She’s Suicidal, Living Alone in NJ Motel

Sinead O’Connor posted a heartbreaking video to Facebook in which she says her battle with mental illness has left her suicidal and living alone in a motel in Hackensack. (Image credits: Getty/AP/WireImage) (Published Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2017)

Sinead O’Connor posted a heartbreaking video to Facebook in which she says her battle with mental illness has left her suicidal and living alone in a motel in Hackensack.

“I’m now living in a Travelodge motel in the arse-end of New Jersey,” she says towards the beginning of the nearly 13-minute video. (Warning: The video contains strong language.)

The singer fights back tears as she says her loved ones have abandoned her because of the stigma of mental illness.

“I’m all by myself, and there’s absolutely nobody in my life except my doctor, my psychiatrist, the sweetest man on Earth, who says I’m his hero,” she says. “That’s about the only f------ keeping me alive at the moment. The fact I’m his bloody hero, and that’s kind of pathetic.”

O’Connor says she wants the video to be of help to others like her “that don’t necessarily have the resources that I have.”

“I’m fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting, like all the millions and millions that I know I’m one of to stay alive every day,” she says.

The singer, best known for her 1990 hit single “Nothing Compares 2 U,” said she has battled three mental illnesses in her life.

“Mental illness, it’s a bit like drugs, it doesn’t give a s--- who you are,” she says in the video. “Equally, you know what’s worse, is the stigma, it doesn’t give a s--- who you are. And suddenly, all the people who are supposed to be loving you, taking care of you, are treating you like s---.”

In an earlier note, O'Connor said she had been in rehab following 30 years of substance abuse and would be living in a "sober living environment" for the next year.

In May 2016, O'Connor caused a brief scare when she was reported as missing in the Chicago suburbs. She was found safe at the Best Western hotel in Morton Grove, Illinois, where several police cars and an ambulance had been spotted.